Mobility is crucial to war fighting, so much so that even the ultimate infantryman, Johnnie Rico, grudgingly acknowledges it. But as Rico's quote here shows, Heinlein saw the future of expeditionary warfare. He didn't go into specifics of how to get there he was thinking of carts and horses, not tilt-rotor aircraft and ship-to-shore Marine Corps hovercraft. 'You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended,' he writes. Sun Tzu put a lot of importance of getting to the fight first. 'You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.' 'An infantryman can fight only if someone else delivers him to his zone in a way I suppose pilots are just as essential as we are.' - Johnnie Rico To shatter and destroy it is not so good.' 2) Mobility is essential Sun Tzu says: 'In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact. Instead of starting a cycle of violence, a smart war can end one. This is a smart use of force - a way to use violence to set conditions of a diplomatic solution. Consider the recent example of eliminating Columbian FARC rebels with precision airstrikes.

Sometimes, meeting violence with more effective violence is what it takes to give peace a chance. A coalition of the willing can build schools in Afghanistan, but a couple of jerks with rifles and a can of gasoline can reduce it to ashes. Invading France to liberate it was an Allied triumph.ĭespite our best wishes and peaceful intentions, someone else with a gun can shape the future. Invading France to conquer it was a Nazi crime. Likewise, war is an extension of governmental policy - the better the policy, the better the war's outcome. You don't blame a screwdriver when someone uses it to break into a car - you blame the car thief. War is a tool that can be applied to many situations: to roll back aggression and deter aggressors, to end dictatorships, to stop genocide, or to protect the supply of commodities central to the nation's interest. But the 'what is it good for? Absolutely nothing' line is entirely too simplistic. People have been conditioned to think that war is only wasteful and tragic. Dubois, Johnnie's history and moral philosophy teacher. 'Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.' You may not hear overly intense car salesman quoting from Starship Troopers anytime soon, but here are six reasons why the book is a practical guide to 21st century warfare. Like Sun Tzu's masterpiece, Heinlein's abounds with quotable axioms. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play

Heinlein starship troopers